I heard these amps are made in Aus. Anybody have any opinions on them? I have heard a couple of their heads in action and I remeber them being pretty gritty and ampeg -like. So... Any devout Lab Systems fans out there?

They are no longer! They went out of business unfortunately. I played a Labby 400B for 10+ years. It was more GK-like than ampeg like, but it was a great sounding head. When mine eventually died, I look at replacing it with another one but their prices had increased dramatically, so I went with something else.

Their 410 and 610 cabs were also very good. If you see a second hand one for sale, look into it.

Petebass wrote:They are no longer! They went out of business unfortunately. I played a Labby 400B for 10+ years. It was more GK-like than ampeg like, but it was a great sounding head. When mine eventually died, I look at replacing it with another one but their prices had increased dramatically, so I went with something else.

Their 410 and 610 cabs were also very good. If you see a second hand one for sale, look into it.

when did they fold? it couldn't have been that long ago.

you're right, they were quite pricey...may have had something to do with their demise...

EDIT: hmmm...their website is still functioning and no news on the closure...

From memory, I heard about it last year some time. My guess is that no-one remembered to turn the website off as they were leaving - or maybe they're back in business?? Does the website have contact details? Try contacting them and see what happens.

A bassist I know in my town had a 410, which I had the pleasure of using a cuppla times. Was awesome!!!! sounded better than ANY 410 I'd used B4 it! I used MY amp with it which at the time was an Eminar 150w All tube PA head-sounded GREAT too. But that head-thru the Lab systems 410 of his sounded better than it had ever sounded IIRC.

I contacted Tim from Labsystems in about June of last year, he was still kicking hard then. I was chasing somebody to polish up my GuitarLab preamp, lo and behold he was the one that designed it back in the day.

Maybe I should get around to contacting him sometime sooner rather than later...

I never used/tried their amps... one reason being I've always used all tube stuff & had no real reason to wanna try em... But I agree, they weren't/aren't cheap.......dunno & cannot say how the amps sounded

yeah, i've been using my 210 and 212 for about 5 years, tried a couple of other things but ended up going back. Was pounding on the 212 with no PA support. never had a problem with them except the other day i thought the tweeter was blown. turns out it screws onto the mount and had just come loose... not bad in 5 years. I'd love to try a bunch of new cabs on a gig, Eden, Epifani, Bergantino, Markbass, Aguilar and compare... It does have a fair bit of midrange colouration and isn't always the smoothest tweeter, but they have been absolute workhorses for me

I work at the BassCentre
Fender, GK, Aguilar, Sadowsky, blah blah blah

I know im a little late to this thread, but i thought id throw in my 2c.

Im a devout Lab Systems user. I have a VP600HP head, a 4x10 and a 6x10. I bought all of them second hand and have hardly had any troubles.

One thing that did happen was a valve started rattling as it aged, so i took it to Tim (about 15 mintes from my place) and he replaced the valve and serviced it for next to nothing.

For those who said Lab Systems is out of business this is incorrect. Tim is now working on the "George Evans" series of guitar amps (which are very nice), but he will still make any Lab Systems Gear for those who order direct from him. The thing is, he is no longer mass producing for store distribution.

For those who have never tried one, i would reccomend it. They are very flexible amps and i swear by them.